The present invention relates to a data center and, more specifically, to a method for distributing a load between data centers that are operable using only electric power based on renewable energy.
When a data center is operated using electric power generated from renewable energy such as wind power or solar power, the supply of electric power to the data center is not always stable. Therefore, hardly any data centers rely exclusively on renewable energy at the present time. For example, some data centers use some power generated photovoltaically but draw the remaining demand from ordinary transmission lines. In other words, data centers currently cannot operate exclusively on electric power based on renewable energy.
There are examples of data centers drawing all of their electric power from photovoltaic cells but, in order to provide a constant supply of photovoltaically generated electric power to a data center given the instability of available sunlight, a large (excess) number of solar panels and storage batteries is required, which makes installation costs higher than they would otherwise be. When considering the installation of a data center in a location without transmission lines, there is concern over the inability to supply electric power to the data center from the grid in an emergency.
A terminal device/information processing system is disclosed in laid-open patent publication JP2012-058837 to O. Atsushi, titled “Terminal Device, Information Processing System, Request Destination Selection Method, and Program” which includes a selection unit for selecting an external device connected to a processing unit or connecting unit as the device to process a given request depending upon the circumstances, a power storage unit for storing electric power used to operate the processing unit, and a power level detecting unit for detecting the amount of electric power stored in the power storage unit. In this system, the selection unit selects an external device connected via a connecting unit when the power level detected by the power level detecting unit has fallen below a predetermined value. However, the invention disclosed in JP2012-058837 does not relate to a data center or to a method for distributing the load between data centers operable using only electric power based on renewable energy.